Laois suffer freak collapse as Waterford run riot in National hurling league

Laois suffered a heavy defeat in the second round of the National hurling league after an away trip to Waterford fell apart just before half time. Four goals for Waterford in the last eight minutes of the opening half carved the way for Waterford to pull away and ease to victory.

Laois trailed by two points before that glut of goals but the four goals really killed off the game particularly with Waterford having the breeze to come in the second half.

LAOIS 0-19

WATERFORD 7-31

NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE, DIVISION 1B

To make matters worse, Ben Conroy was dismissed on a straight red card at the start of the second half and while Laois continued to battle away, the result was beyond doubt at that stage.

Waterford opened up a 1-4 to 0-1 lead in the opening 10 minutes with Willie Dunphy finding the mark for the visitors while the opening Waterford goal arrived on nine minutes from Carthach Daly.

Stephen Bergin got a point back for Laois but while they had the aid of the breeze, Laois were proving wasteful for the second week in a row and failed to make the most of their chances.

Laois showed great character to stick at it and a '65' and a free from Picky Maher narrowed the gap to six points.

Enda Rowland was called into action to deny Ciaran Kirwan before Rowland himself marched up the field and landed a long range free to further cut the deficit.

Points from Ryan Mullaney and another free from Picky Maher then suddenly only left two points between them on 28 minutes with the Waterford men leading 1-7 to 0-8.

Then it all fell apart. Four goals in as many minutes killed the game off in the blink of an eye.

Austin Gleeson, Patrick Curran, Stephen Bennett and Cathal Kirwan all rose green flags to turn a decent situation into a disaster as Waterford led 5-12 to 0-11 with a combined 4-5 in the last eight minutes of the half.

Ben Conroy was then sent off for a challenge on Tom Barron early in the second half as the day continued to go down hill for the the Laois men.

Stephen Maher and Ross King were making inroads but on 58 minutes, Sean Downey picked up a black card with Stphen Bennett firing the penalty past Enda Rowland.

The rout continued and Bennett got his hat-trick with his second penalty five minutes from time as the curtain came down on a day to forget for Laois.

See Tuesday's Leinster Express for the full report.

Scorers for Waterford: Stephen Bennett 3-8 (2-0 pens, 6fs), P Curran 1-7, C Kirwan 1-4, A Gleeson 1-3, C Daly 1-1, T Barron 0-2, DJ Foran, M Fitzgerald, I Beecher, J Fagan, J Prendergast, B Power 0-1 each.

Scorers for Laois: Stephen Maher 0-8 (5fs, 1 65), Ross King 0-4, Enda Rowland 0-2 (2fs), Ryan Mullaney, Fiachra C Fennell, Stephen Bergin, Wille Dunphy, Aidan Corby 0-1 each. 

Waterford: B Nolan; C Gleeson, C Prunty, I Daly; J Fagan, T de Búrca, T Barron; C Daly, P Curran; J Prendergast, Stephen Bennett, DJ Foran; C Kirwan, M Kiely, A Gleeson. Subs: B Power for Kiely (22), D Lynch for De Burca (49), M Fitzgerald for A Gleeson (52), I Beecher for Prendergast (55), D Lyons for Prunty (61).

Laois: Enda Rowland; Diarmuid Conway, Sean Downey, Donnchadh Hartnett; Podge Delaney, Liam O’Connell, Ryan Mullaney; Jack Kelly, Fiachra C-Fennell; Ben Conroy, John Lennon, Ross King; Willie Dunphy, Stephen Maher, Stephen Bergin. Subs: James Keyes for Lennon (ht), PJ Scully for Dunphy (ht), Conor Phelan for Bergin (ht), Aidan Corby for Kelly (45), Padraic Dunne for Delaney (59)

Referee: P O'Dwyer (Carlow)